After losing consecutive cases in Germany, NIO won a comeback in Australia in the trademark case against Audi.
Recently, the Australian Judgments and Decisions Enhanced (JADE) website showed that the Australian Intellectual Property Office has rejected Audi's objection to NIO's registration of the "ES6, ES7, ES8" trademarks in Australia and allowed NIO's trademark application to continue to be registered in Australia.
The Australian Intellectual Property Office ultimately determined that "there are significant differences between the trademarks of Audi and NIO as a whole, and they do not constitute substantial similarity
In addition, the Australian Intellectual Property Office has supported NIO's views on whether its trademark use constitutes attachment and confusion, whether the NIO trademark violates the Consumer Law or constitutes unfair competition, and whether the NIO trademark is misleading, rejecting Audi's claims.
The dispute over the trademark rights of Audi and NIO's car names has a long history. In October 2021, Audi publicly claimed that NIO had named its two models ES6 and ES8, infringing on the trademark rights of Audi S6 and S8, and sued NIO in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, Germany, where its headquarters is located; After losing the first instance of NIO in 2023, on April 11, 2024, the Munich Higher Regional Court ruled in the second instance that the naming of two NIO models infringed on Audi's trademark rights. Due to the trademark case, NIO ES8, ES7 and other models have changed their "ES" to "EL" after entering the European market.
Yu Yunting, senior partner of Shanghai Dabang Law Firm, once told reporters that the trademark lawsuit is Audi's sniper to prevent NIO from entering the German market.
This is not the first time that established European car companies have targeted new car companies with reasons such as "trademark rights" and model naming. In 1963, when Porsche was preparing to release the 901 model, they received a letter from a Peugeot lawyer stating that the naming of the Porsche 901 model with three digits and a zero in the middle had been used by Peugeot for many years, and that the naming of the Porsche 901 violated French trademark protection laws and infringed on Peugeot's interests. Therefore, the Porsche 901 was forced to change its name to the now well-known Porsche 911 before its release.
On the other hand, the rapid development of intelligent electric vehicles in China has intensified market competition, putting pressure on brands with high sales in the Chinese market such as Audi and Volkswagen. Audi has stated that the severe decline in performance is due to the worsening competitive environment in the European and Chinese markets, as well as a significant increase in expenses for factory closures and business restructuring.